2 United pilots radioed for aid minutes after crash

Rescue needed: 2 United pilots radioed tower within minutes

By Will Kane |
July 12, 2013
| Updated: July 13, 2013 11:48am

A charred emergency exit door is seen on the wrecked fuselage of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 as it sits in storage at SFO.

Two pilots of a United Airlines jet told air traffic controllers five minutes after the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 that they could see survivors who had been ejected from the plane and who clearly needed help, according to an audio recording.

The unidentified pilots of the United Boeing 747 that was waiting to enter the runway for takeoff radioed the control tower and reported that from their cockpit they could see victims who were alive and moving about 500 yards from the fuselage - but who were struggling and needed help.

Their alert is significant because San Francisco fire officials have said that they did not learn about that group of critically injured victims until 14 minutes after the crash - and only after an airport field officer made a report to them.

It is unclear whether air traffic controllers relayed the information to rescuers or whether they heard the exchange during the chaotic first moments following the crash. But a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said rescue personnel should have been listening to the radio frequency that carried the report.

What is clear is that immediate help for those victims did not arrive.

Pleading for help

In recordings of 911 calls made in the aftermath of the crash, passengers who were not injured are heard pleading for rescuers to come help victims who were severely injured and near the tail section that had broken off the plane during the crash. The tail was far from the fuselage. One caller estimated that 20 to 30 minutes had passed and that there still were no paramedics.

One of the victims eventually found far from the main wreckage was a 16-year-old girl, Wang Lin Jia, who died. It is unclear whether she might have been helped had rescuers reached her earlier.

"We see people ... and they need assistance," one of the United Airlines pilots radioed to the control tower. "They are alive and walking around. Some people look like they are struggling."

Another member of the flight crew then reported that he could see people near the 28L label on the runway, close to where the plane's tail had snapped off.

"There are people right adjacent to the numbers," the man said. "We can see two or three people who are moving and apparently survived."

Air traffic controllers acknowledged the reports, but the FAA would not say whether the information was forwarded to rescuers. Still, Lynn Lunsford, an FAA spokesman, said: "When emergency vehicles are on the airfield, they are required to be in contact with the control tower."

Fire crews could be heard earlier in the air traffic recording asking controllers for permission to cross runways as they drove to the scene.

Evacuation came first

Rescue crews first focused on evacuating the passengers from the burning plane and can't say when they finally reached the group thrown from the plane.

Besides the 16-year-old girl, three flight attendants who suffered serious injuries were ejected with their seats in the crash, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

It isn't clear what impact the delays had in reaching those critically injured passengers. But 911 callers said many were in desperate need of help.

"There is a woman out here on the street, on the runway, who is pretty much burned very severely on the head and we don't know what to do," the 911 caller says. "She is severely burned. She will probably die soon. ... She needs help."

Another caller, identified on the dispatch tapes as Cindy Stone, said she couldn't get the attention of firefighters.

"We've been on the ground for, I don't know, 20 minutes, 30 minutes," Stone said. "We've got people on the tarmac with critical injuries. We're almost losing a woman here."

Desperate situation

"We were yelling, yelling, yelling, but couldn't get any of the emergency responders to come over and help," Stone said. He said his family called 911 about 25 minutes after the crash, "and then it was 10 to 15 minutes until we got somebody over to help."

Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White did not return a call seeking comment. On Thursday, Fire Department spokeswoman Mindy Talmadge said that firefighters tried to help as many people as they could as quickly as they could. The plane was carrying 307 passengers and crew.